Parents see red over fee hike

Dubai: Many residents feel that the increasing cost of education is surpassing the spiralling rents.

This comes in the wake of a proposal by an education group to raise school fees by 20 per cent.

A cross section of expatriates and UAE nationals who spoke to Gulf News said the ministry of education should make schools set a realistic profit margin.

Petar Kenz, a Croatian father of two, said he pays a whopping Dh46,000 annually for each of his children. He feels that the fees are not realistic and there is no value for money.

"I wish that the ministry of education would determine a profit margin beyond which a school cannot go," said Kenz.

Highlighting similar views Briton Joanne Robinson, who is a mother of two, said that it won't be long before we see people from the middle income group moving out.

"The cost of living is unbearable and at the same time we do not get to see a pay rise in private companies. The burden of the fee hike is less if one is in a high management job," she said.

According to her, in the last four years she had witnessed five to ten per cent hike in school fees. "I pay Dh25,000 per child and this is relatively cheap as compared to other British curriculum schools," she said.

Amer Kathem, a UAE national, said he got to learn about the fee increase through Gulf News. He said a sudden increase in fees is not justified.

"But I understand why schools are increasing their fee. It's all because of the high cost of living."

Kathem said currently he does not feel the pinch of the increase since his company pays for his child's education.

But the Valdez family had to take bank loans to keep up with the fee hike.

Domingo Valdez, a Filipino who has three children, said, "Both my wife and I are employed. We were notified about a fee hike at the last minute and this made it all the more difficult for us to organise the cash and hence we went for a bank loan," he said.

Valdez said he pays an estimated Dh20,000 to Dh30,000 in school fees for his three children.

He said he would not consider sending his kids back to his home country. "We Asians have the family as the very core of our existence. We do not want the family to disintegrate and so no matter how much debt I have to incur I will keep my children with me."

Shabnam Rawal, an Indian, said that she pays more for her son's school education than she had to pay for her entire university in Canada.

"My son is in Grade 3 and I pay Dh30,000 as fees. I paid C$2,500 [Dh 8,000] for my university education annually. But I would like to add that there are a lot of options in the UAE. For example, there are various schools for different income group," she said.

Mohammad Hassan, a Jordanian father of three, said that he was forced to send his children to Amman.

"I cannot afford to pay the fees in the UAE. I hold the fee hike directly responsible for disintegrating my family. Not to forget the spiralling rents. Life has become difficult. I find it hard to concentrate on my work because half of my mind is with my kids," he said.